We're pretty tired of being sick and I am SO ready to be done wiping Isaac's nose. I took pictures of Isaac and I yesterday to memorialize the LAST colds we will have in a very long time. Let it be true! And who can we blame, by the way? I've decided to blame our daily zoo trips (tons of kids = tons of potential for sickness) but I'm unwilling to give up our lovely trips and neither is Isaac. 
Speaking of lovely trips, we hauled our sick selves on over to the Stevenson family reunion last weekend at Bear Lake and it was awesome! Our first land-locked beach experience together! Isaac loved to collapse on his knees in the water and then inch forward toward deeper water:). And he loved that we built sand castles so he could destroy them. He hated leaving the beach all three times we left it and despite dealing with that trauma-drama, Doug and I didn't regret our adventures. Also at Bear Lake, I got to see Elder Cook of the 12 Apostles and my West Virginian blogging buddy, Julia! How cool to see an Apostle of God and to have living, breathing proof that West Virginians still exist and are happy and well! We love our West Virginian friends and look forward to playing with them again in a month. Um, I also love the Stevenson family, with whom we enjoyed glorious, relaxing, giggling, famous-shake-consuming fun.
And I wanted to post about my piano playing little man. Every day, he pulls himself up onto the piano bench, plays the piano while he sings, and flips the pages of the hymnal so he can play other songs. I would like to play the piano more, but every time I try, Isaac rushes over to sit on my lap or sit by me, and he flips the pages quickly so I never get more than 30 seconds with any one song. The worst is that he likes to flip to the back of the hymnal (where there is no music to read, only titles and page numbers) and he doesn't like it when I try to flip back to something playable.
Incidentally, I am still waiting for my pictures to appear on this post (thank you, dial-up Internet) so here's another tidbit: I am having a blast with The Golden Compass and I don't know why there was so much controversy in Utah about it. The rumor was that the author was advocating atheism--which he isn't, by the way. I've seen the movie and I'm reading the book and it's just delightful fantasy. Spoiler warning: I have heard that a character named God dies in one of his books, but I'm not there yet and I am getting no bad spiritual vibes. I completely wish to do what church leaders, directed by Heavenly Father and the Savior, want me to do. But to my knowledge, there was no official statement from the church telling members to shun the book (nor is there anything not "of good report and praiseworthy" in it) and I think Utahn's flipped out blindly and unnecessarily (based on my own viewing and reading). If you know more about this, or have opinions on the subject, by all means share. I could certainly be misinformed and presumptuous.
5 comments:
Hey Tara- I've read the whole trilogy... and you are completely right. Sure *SPOILER* a character called God dies- but it is pure fantasy with some harsh criticism for a church I need not mention that I imagine you have already identified.
It is about organized religion used to corrupt and warp humanity in the name of profit rather than well- glorify God (whatever God may be).
when you are done with the book you will realize how bad that movie sucked. If you haven't seen it don't waste your time. I was furious during like 95% of it and wished I had just left.
I am still just as mormon as I was before I read the books- if anything it actually made me think about religion. Like it presents corruption and religion being used to move a society to do really terrible things in the name of religion. Anyways- I will keep the rest to myself. I wouldn't want you to be disappointed- and to be perfectly honest- you won't get into any of the heavy religion stuff until book 3. And then he takes pieces of religion from tons of writings (including Dante)
Who would have thought you could have such a crappy cold in JULY!! Don't worry you aren't alone. Grant and I have had the delightful cold here to. I was hoping it wasn't going around in ID and in a couple of weeks we could escape it, but knowing our luck we'll probably catch it again :)!!! Gotta love it right. I'm so sorry and I hope you guys feel better soon.
Isaac is such a cutie! I can't believe how big he is.
I read the Golden Compass trilogy too and while I liked them, I thought the last 2 were just okay. The whole religion thing didn't bother me- parts of it reaffirmed what I believe- but the ending threw me off a little. If you read them, let me know what you think.
Like bexxt, I've read the whole trilogy. I really liked Golden Compass. The second one holds some profound symbolism on depression (for me at least). And the third is rather dark. When I finished the trilogy I knew that I would never recommend the books to someone who was struggling with their faith, but it did make me think. The books seem to question who God is - but I didn't interpret them as challenging the existence of God, I think that the challenge was who we think God is. We, as members of the church, are more sensitive to some of the ways the author challenges religion because we fully understand the truth and are more able to see the symbolism. We also know the true nature of God and as other religions have some truth it is strange to see the things they have challenged together with everything else. There were times when my soul cried "No! I know how things really are." - like Valerie, my testimony was confirmed. It has been years since I read the books and I would love to read them again and look at them harder.
P.S. Sorry it was so long! - RB
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